


Primeval 100 Drabbles: 301 - 350

by Annariel



Series: Primeval 100 Drabbles [7]
Category: Primeval, Primeval: New World, The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Community: primeval100, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-10
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2017-11-28 20:03:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 49
Words: 4,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/678372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mixture of drabbles for prompts drawing from all of the Primeval series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Old that is Strong does not Wither

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to collect together the drabbles for the seventh 50 Primeval 100 prompts as I write them. Therefore it is a work in progress since these only get done as prompts get posted. One of the reasons I've put "Choose not to Warn" and not listed characters and pairings is that this may well vary as more get added and the characters and pairings would probably quickly tend towards "all". Since I can add specific warning as well as "Choose not to Warn" I will add specific warnings as they crop up.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 351 (Gold)

The vigorous old man insisted on attending almost every shout. He stood around making deductions, criticising the science team and, on one notable occasion, driving a dromeosaurus back through an anomaly with his walking stick.

"What are the two rings for sir?" asked Private Wilkins, who was new to the anomaly business and more curious than was really healthy.

Professor Temple's bushy eyebrows quirked and his hand gripped the thong around his neck.

"One is an old keepsake. The other is a promise." 

The Professor gazed thoughtfully at the anomaly as if hoping for something or someone to step out.


	2. Handheld Anomaly Detector

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 302

I stumbled upon the bunker, by chance, in the middle of dense woodland. Looters, or worse, had been there, but a thick layer of dust said it hadn't been disturbed for years.

Inside, my exploration was rewarded with a small hand-held device, buried under a pile of debris. Tech is nearly always worth something, even broken tech.

As the sun's rays warmed it, I was delighted to see lights spread across the face. Finally it settled into a steady state - a green light flashing and a persistent beep sounding. A small compass reading told me to head North West.


	3. Photographic Evidence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 303

Cutter often wondered why he never showed the photo of Claudia to anyone. 

It would make everything simpler. It would force the ARC to confront the fact that he was telling the truth.

He couldn't. These people were strangers. The fact evident in a thousand tiny details. They were not _his_. He'd hoped, somehow, that showing it to Jenny would make her one of his people, but there was a fiancé and she became forever out of reach.

The photograph was his. Deep down he feared that if he shared it with an outsider, then it would be forever lost.


	4. Make Do and Mend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 304

Control sighed as he read the report on the Prospero disaster. If he was not mistaken, the subtle yet distinctive tang of smug pervaded Lester's choice of words. 

"Sir?" the new aide was hovering in front of his desk. Control couldn't remember his name and wasn't going to try. He could tell the man wouldn't last.

"File it in ARC with Leek, Johnson and Cutter."

Control had had high hopes that Burton would be the lever that would finally allow him to get rid of Lester. Still, make do and mend. There were some interesting reports coming in from Canada.


	5. Sick as a Dog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 305

Becker remembered the anomaly shout. He remembered the awkward repatriation of something identified as an Eryops to its swampy home. And then... he recalled getting back to his flat, heat and swaying walls, after that nothing.

The clinical white walls, observation windows and air lock were not reassuring. But the man leaning over him was not wearing a biohazard suit.

Becker's throat was dry but he managed to croak, "what?"

"An insect born infection. Lucky, otherwise more people would have caught it."

"My team?"

The man's mouth tightened slightly. Becker closed his eyes. He didn't need to hear the answer.


	6. Shakespeare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 306

"Let me compare thee to a summer's day," Nick began extravagantly.

"Don't," said Claudia, sleepily. The hot sun was soporific.

"Don't!" Nick's voice was full of indignation.

"I don't need you spouting poetry to know how you feel."

"Aye, well, mebbe, but I'd still like to tell you."

Claudia cracked open her eyes. "You could try your own words."

"I'm not so good with the fancy poetry."

Claudia propped herself up on her elbows. "I'd still like to hear it."

Nick flushed red. "Well, you're a right bonnie lass."

Claudia couldn't help a gentle laugh. "That was perfect," she said.


	7. Asylum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 307

"Come with us. We'll get you home somehow."

Ishtar's English wasn't good, but she knew enough to understand the meaning of the words. She shook her head stubbornly.

"Look child, you're not safe here."

Ishtar glanced around her cave. The entrance looked out over the tops of forest trees that went on for miles and miles. Until the strange blond Englishman and his lanky friend appeared, she hadn't seen a single human for six months. 

No humans meant no fighting, no war bands, no burning villages.

She wondered, scornfully, at how soft they must be to think this place unsafe.


	8. Professor Nick Cutter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 308

Helen's parting shot was more an angry shout of frustration.

"I'll show you, and them, just how promising a career I'm going to have."

The front door slammed shut behind her.

Nick sighed. He'd known the news was going to be a blow to her ambition, but had hoped that she would be pleased for him. Angrily he scrunched up the letter and tossed it into the open fire.

The flames licked around the edges as the paper unfurled and then burned. The words "We are delighted to offer you the Chair of Evolutionary Zoology" being the last to go.


	9. It's a Jungle Out There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 309

The air was thick and heavy with a damp heat that sapped the strength. Not for the first time Lester wished they had found somewhere a little more accessible for their home. One the other hand, the canopy appeared to be safer than the understory.

"Hard work?" asked Danny as Lester hauled himself into the make-shift tree house.

Lester sighed wearily. "The knife has gone blunt again, and something has broken into half the traps and ruined them."

Danny waggled his eyebrows at him. "Go on, say it!" he urged.

"I have absolutely no intention of giving you the pleasure."


	10. The Age of Chivalry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 310

Laurel breathed gently on the final patch of gresso and then laid down the gold leaf pressing it with smooth silk. She picked up her brush and dusted away the excess gold. The final sharp fragment sprung into life.

Laurel set down the brush and leaned back, stretching aching muscles. She would leave the work over night for the gold to harden. Tomorrow she would burnish it and beginning adding colour.

She smiled. The shape was forming aright. The fractured ball of light through which the strange knights had ventured lay before her in delicate gold on the vellum parchment.


	11. In the Sewers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 311

Matt concentrated on following Britt as she dodged among the ravines and boulders. The predators were not far behind.

"Where's this?" he asked as she suddenly stopped and scraped away the loose soil, revealing a circular metal hatch.

"Old tunnels."

They dropped down, pulling the hatch closed. Matt risked the beam of a torch. The tunnels were almost circular, made of red bricks, a gutter of some kind ran down the centre. He reached out and touched the walls.

"These are really old. I wonder what they were for?"

Britt shrugged. "Beats me. The ancients were always building wierd shit."


	12. Deadline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 312

Claudia leaned against the door of Cutter's office and sighed in frustration.

"Retiring defeated?" Stephen was walking down the corridor. 

"Lester wanted those reports three weeks ago!"

"Deadlines aren't really Cutter's thing. He had to courier his first conference paper across half of Europe to submit in time! I'm just thankful the Internet has now penetrated the field."

Claudia groaned. "I'm doomed!"

"If it's any consolation, I have actually written the report. Cutter just wants to read it before he signs it off."

"How long?" Claudia asked hopefully.

Stephen's shrug was altogether too smug and nonchalant. 

She was definitely doomed.


	13. Full Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 313

Abby paused by the Land Rover looking back at the locked anomaly. They had so few moments to simply stop and stare.

The anomaly had opened above a small hill directly beneath a full moon. The orange circle, like a small sun, cast a warm glow over the sheep-cropped grass. Beyond the warmth of the anomaly's light, the Yorkshire dales were coloured in deep purples, blues and blacks.

The moon turned the road from her feet to the foot of the hill into a ghostly ribbon, framed by dry stone walls.

All around the night was silent and at peace.


	14. History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 314

Sarah watched as the image processing software did its work. Connor was babbling to Lester, somewhere in the background, about X-ray flourescence. Miscellaneous historians and scientists clustered around, some glaring darkly at the newly arrived ARC team.

"You really think there could be something there?" Becker asked.

"The palimpsest is from the right time and the right place. The rumours even mention sister Laurel," Sarah said.

"Oh!" said Connor, suddenly.

The unmistakable shape of an anomaly appeared in the margins of the text. 

Behind them, Lester sighed. "I suppose now we'll have to buy off the entire historical manuscripts project."


	15. Strange Bedfellows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 315

Nick had been ignoring the strange tickle of familiarity as he struggled through the Permian landscape. But when he spotted the discarded camping boxes, the camera, the makeshift outline of the grave, he suddenly knew where he was, if not when precisely.

Night was falling. He'd move on in the morning and head in the direction of that first recurring anomaly.

He rummaged through one of the boxes for supplies and then lay down in a small hollow, wrapping his jacket tightly around him. He glanced over at the grave and half-wondered half-hoped that Ryan would watch over his sleep.


	16. Black and Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 316

The ceiling of Becker's bedroom is painted black. A leftover from a previous tenant with a teenage daughter. At some point, Becker recalls, he had intended to repaint it.

The phone rings, again. Becker ignores it, again.

At some point he's going to have to get up. He's hungry and he needs a slash, but not yet. 

Sarah had been wearing a blue scarf. In Becker's minds' eye, it flies, bright and free, in the sun.

Becker lies on his bed and stares at the real black and the imagined blue, and they weave together into his heart and mind.


	17. Gluttony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 317

There were moments when Matt would feel suddenly pulled away. Reality would recede and he became an outsider looking in. The ARC Christmas meal at The Green Man was such an occasion. Dishes piled high with meat and vegetables fought for space with beer glasses, bottles of wine and jugs of gravy. Matt felt strangely like a famished outsider looking in, even as he sat squashed on a bench surrounded by the goodwill of his friends. Emily's shoulder was pressed against his, and before them lay a meal that, once upon a time, would have fed him for a month.


	18. All That I'm Living For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 318

"Well Abby of course... and really my job is totally cool!... Star Wars... and Doctor Who, and... OK, let's just say science fiction in general... and fantasy... and Sherlock... ummm... there's the cute way that Abby smiles... and Sid and Nancy are really great when they're not eating my stuff... gloves obviously... and the quest to find my hat. I shall succeed. Friends, dinosaurs, watching Abby look after animals, the internet, cookie dough ice cream..."

"What's that you're reading Connor?"

Connor blushed and hastily closed _Cosmopolitan_ and its "Fifty ways to stop a suicidal person".

"Nothing, just counting my blessings."


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 319

Abby contemplated the ARC reunion invite. It was printed on heavy card, with a little gold rim and italic lettering. 

Because they hadn't got to the wedding, there was no widow's pension.

When she quit, full of grief and anger, she had five years essentially missing from her CV, and a year missing from her National Insurance contributions.

And, it transpired, a baby on the way.

A zookeeper's salary wasn't enough, even when she finally got a job. 

She kept in touch (cheerful Christmas cards, the odd tweet). Everyone else would fit in at this fancy do - but not her.


	20. The Longest Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 320
> 
> Follow up to [A Midsummer Night's Dream](http://archiveofourown.org/works/850847)

Jenny sat up. There were buttercups and daisies caught in her hair, alongside the love-in-idleness which still grew in drifts all about them.

"We should get back," Nick said.

Jenny plucked a single purple flower and twirled with her fingers. "Let's not."

"There are reports to write and I'm sure there's an encounters with wild magic form."

"Danny will fill in the forms," Jenny said, with alarming certainty.

Nick shook his head. "Midsummer is getting to you, and you're supposed to be the sensible one."

"There's plenty of time." Jenny laughed happily, pulling him back down into their flowerly bed.


	21. High Noon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 321

The shot broke the hushed silence. Danny's ears rang with the report and his nose filled with the smell of gunpowder.

Silence fell again.

He turned his back on the body lying in the dusty street.

"You didn't have no choice, Sherrif!"

It was Connor, the apothecary's assistant. It figured he would be the first out from wherever the townsfolk were hiding.

"Hush Connor! The man's just killed his own brother." That was Miss Maitland. Folk had remarked on her and Connor Temple, though seemed like she hadn't remarked it much herself.

Danny carried on walking. He was done here.


	22. Expect the Unexpected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 322

Cutter's admiration for Jenny's handbag hstarted small. He'd barely registered the endless supply of sweets, torches, screwdrivers, and superglue.

Then he found himself at an anomaly with a broken shoelaces.

He roared, "Jenny!" before he even recalled she had 'flu.

He spent the next three hours chasing eohippus' around a muddy field in his socks.

Even so, on the notable occasion when he found himself in a stationary cupboard, in an unexpected state of deshabile, he felt the need to comment on her supply of condoms, wipes and breath mint.

"Expect the unexpected," she said with a lazy post-coital grin.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompte 323

Evan was panting for breath as he dashed through the anomaly. He could feel Dylan close on his heels. He glanced around, making a quick stock take of the area.

Evan was reassured to see it was still full of soldiers, everything where he remembered. Leeds and Ange were a few meters away, deep in conversation with a blond man that Evan didn't recall seeing before.

All three looked up as the two of them skidded to a halt.

"This is Evan Cross," Ange gestured towards him.

"I see," said the blond man in a broad Scottish brogue, "the substitute."


	24. Battle Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 324

James Lester knew each and every scar on Jon Lyle's body: the long jagged line down his thigh courtesy of a deinonychus; the tiny pale white nick above Jon's eyebrow where a sharp rock and a slip in a cave had resulted in a lot of blood and curses but comparatively little damage; the neat round circle at the edge of his ribs that had appeared after a three month absence in places unknown.

They told the story of their relationship, the adrenaline highs, the anxieties, the waiting, the madness and the wonder. James wouldn't have traded a single one.


	25. Unanswered Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 325

Time stopped.

Evan and Dylan were caught in a glittering web; in that moment from which any event could follow, any answer could be given. The anomalies folded in around them, history changed and was reshaped. 

Sapphire hummed as the threads tightened. It was an old melody, birthed in misty glens, by a people who, after conquest and clearance, had eventually found themselves on a far continent and whose descendents had created this particular nexus.

Then she stopped.

"Is it done?" asked Steel.

Sapphire nodded. "It is done."

All those questions left unanswered, for they had never now been asked.


	26. Proper Procedure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 326

James Lester paused for a whole minute in indecision after putting down the phone. Everything about Claudia Brown struck him as level-headed and sensible but still...

He decided this was a query best delivered in person and opened the door of his office.

"I don't suppose there is an emergency plan for dinosaurs appearing through rips in time?" he asked his PA.

Miss Bashem paused her typing and observed him over the tops of her glasses. Apparently deciding he was serious, she turned back to her screen and clicked rapidly through menus.

"Forest of Dean, Gravesend or Chipping Sodbury, sir?"


	27. The Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 327

The anomaly opened on a wet October evening and closed shortly after Abby repatriated a recalcitrant Ophiacodon to an equally damp Carboniferous swamp.

She didn't recall Connor's jumper being green, but fatigue dismissed the thought from her mind. Connor was quieter than usual, but then he was tired too. Still he cooked up a lovely vegetarian curry and described it as his "usual". Abby had never tasted it before.

In the cold morning light, Abby stared at a bedside lamp she didn't recognise, and fought the panicked idea that the still sleeping form at her back was not her Connor.


	28. University

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 328

In spite of bare shelves and a determined overlay of chemical lemon and furniture polish, there was a hinted fragrance of old leather. Golden sunlight shone through large windows. In the quad below, a motley group were demonstrating more enthusiasm than skill for frisbee.

The departmental head had muttered enticements about research groups and the college bursar was mentioning fellowships. Nick could bring the entire team, if he wished.

The aches in his bones told him that, sooner or later, he would have to accept a retreat to quiet scholarship and away from the frontline. Was this the moment though?


	29. I Can't See Anything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 329

The noises of squawking and screaming horses were deafening as Ryan pounded down the narrow path, hemmed in with neatly trimmed box. He turned a sharp corner, through a stone arch. Silence fell, sudden and almost as deafening. Ryan staggered out into a long field that sloped gently down towards dark green tree tops lining the river bank below.

Behind him the park warden stumbled to a halt, his ragged breathing the only sound in the stillness.

"But?" said the warden, after a moment. "I can't see anything."

The well-grazed field was empty, mocking them in the bright summer sun.


	30. It's All Greek to Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 330

Costis crashed into the presence of the royal couple, the King's Guard at his heels. Which wasn't much use since the creature had been ahead of them.

The royal attendants were in a state of barely suppressed panic. The King and Queen, however, were seated calmly eating oranges. One of the lizard creatures lay in a bloody crumpled heap. Costis tried not to stare at it while he waited to be noticed. 

"Ah Costis!" The King said at last. "Tell me about this light ball you urgently needed to investigate then. Was it interesting?"

Costis was in so much trouble.


	31. Magnetic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 331

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in the same universe as Primeval 100 Pirates

Jenny leaned against the poop deck forward rail and watched as Professor Cutter, once again, covered the deck with chalk.

"Well?" asked Sarah. 

Jenny shrugged. "Calm sea, blue skies, mad professors."

Then Sarah gasped. Jenny looked across to see her staring at the large compass mounted by the wheel. The needle span wildly.

Professor Cutter let out a whoop of triumph. Familiar balls of light opened all around the ship. Rex gave a call and rose up into the air, as a flock of green lizards flowed out from one of the lights to join him, spiralling around their heads.


	32. Undercover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 332. 
> 
> This is, really an extended in-joke. Sanctuary is where Primeval characters go when they die ([There is a masterlist of Sanctuary stories here](http://primeval-denial.livejournal.com/2807141.html)). Felix is a tentacle monster. This fic follows on from [Undercover Lyle](http://lsellersfic.livejournal.com/30417.html) and [There's Something Nasty in the Woodshed](http://lsellersfic.livejournal.com/134506.html). Fredbassett told me to write it.

"What's going on? What's up with Felix?" Stephen stared at the hive of activity in Sanctuary's kitchen. Wires trailed across the floor and monitors covered every surface. Really, you took an innocent shower in this place and all hell broke loose.

"He's going undercover." Sarah thumped a monitor which flickered and died. "There's a rumour of major upheavals at the ARC. We thought we might need an insider in Lester's office. Felix volunteered."

"What's he going undercover as?" Stephen couldn't help asking.

"An aspidistra."

"An aspidistra? He's wearing a moustache!"

Sarah shrugged. "Lyle said all good disguises involve a moustache."


	33. Autumn Colours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 334

Claudia looked ethereal. She was swaddled in red and gold blankets. Her hair blended in with the brown of the pillows. She was beautiful and faded, like the trees around them in the garden.

The illness was eating her out from within. This was probably Lester's last visit. 

"Cutter will take it badly," she said quietly.

"He was always fond of you. Lyle was running a book at one point."

She smiled. "I was aware. Cutter would have been terrible at this."

Lester agreed silently. But Claudia was splendid. She was leaving with the grace and poise of a Queen.


	34. Vital Signs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 335

From his shelter in a cave overlooking the dusty plain, Matt trained his binoculars on the landscape below. There was supposed to be a community down there but he'd heard enough tales of unwitting travellers stumbling into predator infested tunnels to be very, very cautious. 

He scanned the landscape, looking for the tell-tale signs of a settlement: faint wisps of smoke and rising air from underground ventilation; a trail of footprints that must have been made since the poisonous winds last passed over; the faint gleam of sunlight on a trip wire indicated a predator trap only recently placed.


	35. Forgetful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 336

Sarah waylaid Nick on the way into the ARC and frogmarched him to the local florist.

"I've only been dating Jenny for a month," he protested.

"One month exactly _and_ you called her Claudia when you left last night!"

Nick hovvered over the flowers before selecting lillies. He had a vivid memory of the large slender white blooms on Jenny's desk. He ran a quick mental double-check that it wasn't Claudia's desk, but he was sure. He remembered flowers on Claudia's desk, something red, but the details eluded him. Forgetting the details, he told himself, was part of letting go.


	36. The Wheel of Fortune

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 337

The recent release of papers about convergence under the thirty-year rule has generated a national discussion on public safety and official secrecy.

However, paleontologist are in quiet excitment about a footnote listing the original anomaly team. Professor Cutter published a slew of highly speculative papers just before his untimely death. Presented as thought experiments, they served only to generate speculation about his apparent switch from rigorous science-based archeology to writing opinion puff pieces. These papers are now being re-evaluated. The hunt is on to locate the notes he must have kept in the anticaption that they will revolutionise the field.


	37. The Undiscovered Country

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 338

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the very end of [The Seven Year Challenge](http://annariel.dreamwidth.org/98524.html) in which Primeval gets horribly entangled with fairy land, Nick (after Jenny's death) meets up with Claudia, Ryan and Stephen on the edge of the "Sea of Life" and I wrote "The small grey boat floated on the vast sea, the pegasus and the dragon circling it overhead. It sailed out, over the horizon, and vanished from the knowledge of the fey." This was partly because my beta-reader wouldn't let me say "and no one ever saw them again" because she said that was too depressing and hinted too strongly that they were all dead.
> 
> So given the prompt was _The Undiscovered Country_ from whose far bourn (as I recall my English lessons) no traveller returns, which is (again if I recall my English lessons) a metaphor for death, the following is probably inevitable.
> 
> Note though, that quite obviously no one is dead, it's just fairy magic. *Nods vigorously and eyes the pitchforks*

They sailed out over the sea of life. The sun shone bright. If they leaned over the side of the boat, they could see down past ammonites and tribolities, vast Dunkleosteus and Plesiosaurs and into the palaces and gardens of the mer-folk.

Eventually they left the terraces of coral, and farms of glistening fish behind. They sailed out onto the wild ocean, where no map could guide them.

One day they came upon an island, balmy and temperate, with palm trees and willow drifting down to the shore. Sarah stood on the sandy beach and waved to them in welcome.


	38. Trick or Treat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 339

"Rex!" Connor hissed anxiously creeping down the street.

It was a bitter cold October evening which added urgency to Connor's search.

He sighed with relief when he heard an answering chirrup. He scrambled over a low fence, and tramped through a flower bed. Warm light from a window revealed Rex, perched on a bush. 

"George! George! There's someone outside!" shouted a voice.

Hastily Connor grabbed the lizard, but tripped over his feet, landing on the front step.

The door swung open and a man peered down suspiciously at him.

"Umm, Trick or Treat?" Connor hazarded, brandishing Rex like a talisman.


	39. Fireworks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 340

"Right! Next!" Connor began rummaging through the firework box.

Ryan sipped his beer appreciatively, one arm lightly around Stephen's waist.

Nick and Lyle were barbequeing, supervised by Claudia. Abby and Sarah were supervising Connor.

"So did you all get knocked on the head by a dinosaur tail?" Ryan asked Becker.

Becker shook his head. "I think the Management just thought we could use a evening off." 

Connor lit a green touch paper and retired hurriedly in their direction.

Jess squeaked, jumped, clapped her hands and then hugged Becker as the rocket exploded in multi-coloured lights.

"Well, why not?" Ryan mused.


	40. Fresh Meat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 341

"Oh!" Abby's voice was small and fragile.

They stood in a silent, dusty street, filled with burnt-out cars. The windows of the surrounding buildings were free of glass. 

"What do you reckon?" Connor asked. "Might be better food and shelter than in the Cretaceous."

"And future predators and those insect things."

Connor took a tentative step forwards, unwilling to abandon this potential escape route.

"Oh! and Zombies!" Abby said, with a forced brightness in her voice.

Connor spun around. Shuffling forms were filtering onto the street.

"Yeah! Right! Back to the Cretaceous then!"

They left the zombies to their hunger.


	41. Harbinger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 342

Caspar was accustomed to spending the night on the roof of his dwelling. He had long perfected the art of recording observations in the dark, fingers trailing over the wax, feeling the impression of his stylus. During the hours of daylight his letters, recording his observations and calculations, flowed to colleagues east and south.

It was a surprise to be able to see the wax tablet, but the star in the west dazzled bright with royal beauty. His letters next day, cross-checked against both astronomical chart and astrological prediction, were urgent summons.

The anomaly closed. A harbinger of many things.


	42. Exit Strategy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 343

"You can not _do_ this!"

Lester closed his eyes briefly as if that would somehow block Becker's angry voice. It didn't. He opened them and carried on packing his briefcase.

"Lester!" Becker sounded infuriated.

"I've vetted my replacement. She'll be fine."

"We need you!" Becker sounded desperate.

"No one is irreplaceable. This was always my exit strategy. You can trust Jones, I've been watching her career for a while. It may all be happening a bit sooner than I'd hoped, but the ARC will be fine. _I_ will be fine. _You_ will all be fine. I planned this. Trust me."


	43. Advent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 344

It was just after dawn on December 1st. Becker could feel the frost-laden grass crackling underfoot as he stomped towards the anomaly. As he drew near a bundle of greenery fell out. Then the anomaly snapped shut.

"Holly and Ivy," commented Connor. "We can decorate the SUV."

A fortnight later the car overflowed with hand-carved angels, paper stars and some very irritating tin bells. Lester was heard to say it was time the nonsense stopped. 

At which point the anomalies began delivering food culminating, on the 24th, with a crate of champagne and a hand-written promise of an anomaly-free Christmas.


	44. Comfort and Joy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 345

The night before her wedding, Jenny dreams.

It's a recurring nightmare; confused images from those last weeks at the ARC smashed together. Cutter's body lies before her, rimmed with ice and cold. She hides. Footsteps approach. Something is coming and she's afraid it will find her. Afraid it will round the corner, and find her.

But she wakes to the new dawn with a lightness of heart and a quiet conviction that she is doing the right thing.

Because it was Cutter who finally appeared, staring down at her shivvering form and he spoke.

"Take comfort and go with joy."


	45. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 346

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

Apart from Connor, Abby mused. Something elaborate was happening which required complete secrecy, metres of wrapping paper and sellotape and a lot of swearing.

Two diictodons and one coelurosauravus were also stirring. She'd last seen them leaving the living room in a cloud of torn paper, and had a suspicion they were responsible for some of the swearing.

However, in principle, nothing was stirring which meant she was definitely entitled to the sherry and the mince pie. She left the carrot.


	46. Deadly Landscape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 347 (Picture Prompt)

The journey to the Brecon Beacons was a nightmare of driving snow. 

When they found the first slaughtered sheep, Stephen was pleased that Abby hadn't even managed to leave home. 

It was, however, easy to follow the blood trail and raptor tracks.

"I hope it doesn't reach Crickhowell," Ryan muttered.

"It's cold-blooded. It won't get that far," Stephen replied.

Ten minutes later they found the body, collapsed amid a small plantation of fir trees. It had stopped snowing but Stephen, looking out over the winter landscape, couldn't help reflecting that the pristine view was deadly in more ways than one.


	47. Out with the Old; In with the New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 348

Connor humphed quietly to himself as he followed the director of the Anomaly Centre down the corridor, his cane tapping on the floor. 

"We're grateful you agreed to return. A steady hand at the helm, is really what the project needs!" She said brightly ushering him into a very well-appointed lab. 

Roughly a dozen scientists leaped to their feet and glanced nervously at each other.

"Well, you know what they say: `Out with the new; In with the old'!"

Connor sighed as his remark was greeted by a dozen blank expressions. Young people these days had no sense of irony.


	48. Self-control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 349

It had been a hellish week encompassing end of year; an anomaly at Sandringham; and yet another report on the New Dawn business. Now Lester was trapped, making small talk, at the leaving do for one of the scientists. 

In an unguarded moment, choking down a luke-warm chicken vol-au-vent, he let slip that, at university, he would buy himself a box of truffles and eat one each time he handed in an essay. Lorraine quirked an eyebrow at him over the rim of a glass of cheap white.

The following day an expensive truffle nestled next to his morning coffee.


	49. Avalanche

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 350

Becker could hear a low rumbling sound. "What is that noise?" he asked.

"Connor, where does that anomaly lead?" Abby was forced to raise her voice.

"Pleistocene!" Connor shouted, frowning at the anomaly, the noise now deafening.

Abby dived for him, pushing him aside as a thick wall of snow poured from the anomaly. It reminded Becker of a train exiting a tunnel. It was a dense white cylinder. But unlike a train, rocks and heavy boulders of snow tumbled away from it into the grassy field. The abandoned locking device was swept away and down the shallow green slope.


End file.
